La Mode Recto Verso
by sekific
Summary: Bookstores and coffee and anticipation and tennis and maturity and teasing: there's more than one way to spark a relationship. (Written for the tenimyuart secret santa giftswap on tumblr).


The heating for the indoor courts had broken, and no amount of swearing and complaining from Yukimura could coax it back into life.

It was far too bitterly cold a day to insist on holding practise, under the circumstances.

"I imagine the gym will be empty tomorrow morning, perhaps we could borrow it for morning practise," said Renji, quietly, after Yukimura had dismissed the regulars. "And the engineer will be here by midday. We're not losing that much time."

"Don't try to placate me, I want to seethe," said Yukimura, shoving his trainers into his bag. "We have that exhibition match against St Rudolph in two weeks."

Renji blinked, surprised. "And you're concerned they might win, for lack of a few hours of training?"

"No, of course not." Yukimura scowled, and zipped his bag up with one sharp, angry motion. "But I want to crush Mizuki's team, not just beat them."

"Ah. New vendetta?"

"New vendetta." Yukimura sniffed. "We were so close to having a whole team of nationally-ranked players at Rikkai again, then he poached that little Ginka ace out from under me."

Renji sighed. "I see. Well. There'll be other chances, I'm sure."

"Not any time soon. Which reminds me: if you see Niou later, remind him I hate him, hm?"

* * *

The bookstore was blessedly warm, at least. Renji pulled his scarf and gloves off, flexing his fingers to try and restore the bloodflow.

"Working today, are you?" asked Sato-san from behind the counter. "I didn't think I saw your name on the schedule, when I checked."

"No, I just..." and Renji trailed off, embarrassed. "I just wanted to look around, I suppose."

"Ah, of course." Sato-san seemed amused. "Go right ahead then, customer-Yanagi-san."

The storeroom door opened, at the distant end of the store and barely visible from the entrance, and Renji caught a glimpse of messy silver hair before Niou was obscured again behind shelves. He smiled at Sato-san, apologetically, before heading off in pursuit.

Niou was reorganising a display of manga, artfully stacking the titles in a way that made the garish colours look rather more tasteful against each other than Renji would have thought possible.

"I'm not sure you need to have One Piece quite so prominent," said Renji, after watching him silently for a few minutes.

Niou actually seemed startled by the interruption, his shoulders tensing up, before he turned and flashed a smile at Renji. "No?"

"It's already popular, people who were going to buy it will have bought those volumes."

"Ah, but it has fans, and those fans will see it surrounded by these other series, and the positive associations will make them think about buying the other series." Niou squinted at the volumes on the left edge of the table, and then began re-aligning the edges with the side of the table. "In theory, anyway. And you're working, on a school night, when I know you have an exhibition match coming up? Is Yukimura actually dead, or merely incapacitated?"

"Practise got cancelled, and no, not working." Renji watched Niou's hands, fascinated as always by how smooth the motions were. "I just thought I'd swing by, see if you-" and then Renji caught himself, just barely in time. "Er, see if the latest novel by Ogawa-san is out yet. But I think I'm a week early."

"At least a week." Niou smiled at him again, wryly. "But I'm sure you'll check tomorrow too, just in case. "

"Mm."

"Until then, shoo. Go enjoy your youthful freedom while you have it." Niou's smile softened. "And I'll see you soon."

* * *

Renji couldn't remember if he'd been especially into Niou before, back when Niou was his tennis teammate and fellow student. It seemed quite likely, in retrospect. Niou'd always been interesting, and Renji had gone through a series of intense but short-lived crushes on most of his friends over the years. He'd rather lost track of whether there were any friends he hadn't had inappropriate thoughts over, by this point.

It didn't matter. He was attracted to Niou now, and he couldn't pretend to himself it was anything but attraction.

He wasn't alone. Niou affected slender-rimmed glasses at work, which in combination with his handsome face, the silver hair and the flirty grin made him look like some sort of advertisement for quirky nerdy bookstore assistants. Kitayama-san - their clever, sharp-tongued boss - often had Niou work near the windows or by the doors at the front of the store, in his apron. It worked. The store attracted a regular flow of customers who came in to browse and to discreetly ogle Niou, and they'd usually at least buy a magazine before they left. It perhaps also helped that Niou didn't look quite as young as he was; discovering he'd dropped out of high school might have punctured their illusions a little.

Renji, as a part-timer, worked only a few hours a week, usually in his favourite sections - history and classical literature - and had, according to Kitayama-san, his own small group of customers who sighed over him when he wasn't there. Renji wasn't sure if this was true, or merely Kitayama-san's attempt to make Renji feel less envious. Niou'd just grinned when Renji'd asked for confirmation, and said that the old lady knew her customers better than he ever could, and maybe Renji should just take it as a compliment.

Renji didn't really envy Niou the attention, anyway; it was amusing and Kitayama-san was clever to capitalise on it, but it did also mean that Niou ended up repeating the same sort of trivial conversation with customers who didn't really want an answer so much as any excuse to talk to him. Renji enjoyed the sorts of conversations he often had: with university students, or customers who wanted to do research, or who wanted genre-specific recommendations. Niou, from Renji's perspective, seemed to spend a lot of time just giving directions and recommending generic best-selling titles.

Not that Renji was any better about making excuses to hang around Niou. Niou might have thought Renji was smart, in school. At work, Renji was sure that impression had been undermined by Renji's airheaded excuses about needing new pens or wanting books that weren't released yet, just so he could drop by and say hello.

Maybe he shouldn't have taken the job. He didn't really need the income; his parents gave him a perfectly adequate allowance, and in fact Rikkai vaguely frowned on students taking part-time jobs. But the prospect of working there, surrounded by books, had been irresistible, and Niou'd put in a good word for him, and it had felt like a good idea.

In retrospect, he should have realised he was going to end up with some sort of crush on Niou. Renji'd always been attracted to intelligence and humour, which Niou had in spades, but maturity had always been high on Renji's list of desirable traits, and, well, Niou, these days, was to all intents and purposes already an adult.

Niou'd always fought with his parents, but in high school it had escalated dramatically; there'd been a long series of arguments and fights that had involved Niou regularly turning up at friends' houses in the small hours of the morning. Eventually, Niou had come along to practise one morning and quietly announced to the regulars that he was leaving Rikkai at the end of that week. He'd found a job that would take him on full-time. He was moving out of home; his sister had helped him get a place.

There was nothing illegal about it - technically, it was legal to leave school at fifteen, after all - but Renji had been horrified. Niou was never going to go to university, not without officially graduating from high school. Niou, who could solve complex equations in his head, who could read Chinese more fluidly than Renji could, who could outsmart nearly all of their teachers when he put his mind to it. The idea of him leaving school made Renji wince in pity; they were all too young, surely, to take on the responsibilities of adult life.

But Niou had seemed determined to make his emancipation a success, and now he seemed… content. Renji had the impression that Niou genuinely liked working at the bookstore, and really liked living on his own, and Kitayama-san had said that if Niou was a little older he'd have been promoted already, and, well, managing a store would be a respectable career with a reasonable income. Under the circumstances, really, Niou was doing far better than Renji suspected he could.

* * *

"I hate the whole team," announced Yukimura, before he flopped backwards on Sanada's futon. "All of them," he continued, apparently talking to the ceiling. "The regulars too."

"Thanks," said Sanada dryly.

"I can't believe nobody is willing to go sabotage the Rudolph team lineup for me."

"Yes, how dare we prioritise not being disciplined for unethical sportsmanship," said Renji. "It's almost as if most people don't think of tennis as the centre of the universe."

Yukimura stuck his tongue out in response.

"If you caught Mizuki - or any of his players - sneaking into our clubroom and changing our lineup, I'm fairly certain you'd have them strung up."

"Fine, take everyone else's side."

"I will. Renji and I will be very content over here in the land of sanity and healthy relationships with our opponents, don't worry."

Renji had to work hard to repress a snort of disbelief at that statement.

"Do you think I could bribe a Rudolph student? Or even Akazawa?" Yukimura sat up. "Seriously, all I want is Mizuki in singles 3 so I can demolish him myself. It's not unethical."

Renji exchanged a look with Sanada.

"It's not."

Sanada huffed out a sigh. "At this point I'm considering warning the poor guy to check his food for poisons. He's not worth this level of grudge, I'm certain."

"He is if I say so." Yukimura sighed, and then grinned sunnily at them both. "Alright, alright. I'll play nice until the match, but I'm taking singles 2 or 3 just on the offchance, understood?"

* * *

"Hey, are you free after your shift today?"

Renji - in the middle of reshuffling the travel guides to accommodate new stock - glanced up at Niou, who was smiling down at him in a worryingly charming fashion.

"Maybe," he said, cautiously.

"So my friend was gonna come see this film with me, but he cancelled and I still have his ticket. It's a historical thingy, and I figure of everyone I know you're the next most likely to actually want to see it."

"Which film?"

Niou dug around in his apron pocket, and produced the tickets. Renji didn't recognise the title, and the start time was exactly the same time that his shift ended. The cinema was only a few minutes away, but even so.

"I asked the boss, she'll let us off five minutes early if it's quiet."

"Hm." Renji looked at Niou's comically exaggerated expression of pleading - which made his stomach flip in an embarrassingly predictable way - and smiled. "Alright, why not."

The film, some low-budget action-based movie set in the Sengoku era, turned out to be dreadful. The acting was unconvincing and the costumes cheap-looking, as if they'd been thrown together at short notice. Renji was alternately confused and horrified - there was a flood of backstory at the beginning that he couldn't manage to make sense of, and he suspected that even if he had followed the backstory that the plot wouldn't follow on logically, and there was so much blood everywhere.

After Renji'd suffered through what felt like an hour of it, Niou leant in close and murmured, "Shit, this is really dreadful. Wanna bail?"

"Yes, please."

Niou, in the food court afterwards, was apologetic enough to insist on paying for Renji's food order.

"It's fine," said Renji, soothingly, wrapping his hands around the hot coffee and letting the steam warm his face. "I've seen awful movies before, I'm sure I'll live through the trauma."

"It's not whether you survive, it's whether you let me survive. Last time I took Yagyuu to a film he hated, he held it over me for a month."

"Really? Interesting. That gives me a target to match."

Niou narrowed his eyes, and then grinned, suddenly. "Hey. Let me make it up to you, then."

"Unless you've suddenly gained the power to promote me, I'm not sure what you could possibly-."

"Ha, you wish. No, how about this: next time there's something you wanna go see and you can't get a date, I'll come. I'll promise not to grumble too much, even."

Renji blinked, a little surprised. "...are you certain you want to promise that? Really?"

"Sure." Niou eyed Renji. "Within reason. No torturous calligraphy exhibits."

"Well, that's nearly all my preferred expeditions out of the question, in that case." Renji sipped at his coffee, and thought. Did this mean Niou actually wanted to spend time with Renji, and this was his way of maneuvering it into happening? "I'll… I think I might have an idea. But I'll let you know."

* * *

Yukimura was twitchy, far more than was really appropriate. There was a whole week left until they played St Rudolph. Rikkai had excellent doubles teams, and Yukimura was threatening to take the third singles slot himself, and it seemed vanishingly unlikely St Rudolph could field anyone who could take even a single set under the circumstances. Really, Renji thought, quietly, it was a little unsporting of them to powerhouse their way through what was, in theory, a friendly exhibition match, but Yukimura seemingly couldn't be talked down.

Sanada put a hand on Yukimura's shoulder, after practise, after Yukimura'd delivered a blistering speech about how they were going to prove Rikkai was the best team on the whole circuit, after he'd dismissed the rest of the team with strict instructions on sleeping and eating properly.

"Enough, now. This isn't worth this much energy, you know," Sanada said, and then chuckled. "Seriously, take a leaf from that freezing film you're so into, it's the right season for it."

Yukimura glared at Sanada, so sharply that Renji was a little taken aback, but Sanada just snorted in amusement. "Shut up."

"Let it go, let it go~" Sanada forced his voice into a falsetto, and Yukimura winced as if in physical pain.

"Don't you dare."

Renji cleared his throat. "Am I missing something?"

"My sister made me go and see that film four times." Yukimura folded his arms over his chest, defensively. "It's not my fault the song got stuck in my head."

"Yes, blame her, why not." Sanada winked at Renji. "Then he made me go and see it with him."

"So you could see why I was so annoyed!"

"I'm sure that Genichirou understood that, yes." Renji nodded, sagely. "You do sound entirely like a victim of circumstance."

"Ha." Sanada leaned towards Renji, and gestured towards Yukimura. "He voluntarily dressed up as Elsa for her birthday party. His dress had sequins. It was hilarious."

"...I made you promise never to talk about that." Yukimura looked more betrayed than Renji had seen in a while. "You swore."

"That was before you became a diva over a simple exhibition game," Sanada said. "I've photos, too. I could send them to Mizuki, give him some ammunition to keep you at bay."

"That threat doesn't work when I know you can't figure out how to send photos from your phone."

"Ah, but I think I'd help, in this case." Renji smiled, relieved to have some way to leash Yukimura, even if it was via blackmail. "So, Seiichi, in that case: best behaviour for next week, yes?"

"Fine. But for the record, I hate you both."

* * *

"Change of plans." Yukimura brandished the letter at Renji, in the school corridor before their first lesson. "The ice has cracked the surface on St Rudolph's outside courts, and their indoor courts are repurposed in winter by other teams so we can't use them. We're moving the match to our indoor courts."

"Does that mean rescheduling-"

"We're pushing it back a few days." Yukimura heaved in a huge sigh, and then seemed to deflate entirely. "After school, midweek. I'll have to cancel the transport and help them arrange theirs, I suppose."

"That's very frustrating." Renji wasn't quite sure that he knew what would make Yukimura feel better. It was only a postponement, but it would have been nice to let Yukimura get his petty revenge sooner rather than later. "But that's only a matter of a few days, not even a whole week. It'll be fine."

Yukimura folded the letter up carefully again. "Maybe."

"Is this just about some player you wanted for Rikkai's team?" Renji was used to Yukimura's whims and he did tend to go all-out when he was holding grudges, but all this focus on one match seemed disproportionate even so.

"No, I suppose it isn't." Yukimura leant against the wall, heavily. "Mizuki had the nerve to imply that I was a lazy captain, that I was a slacker if I didn't bother keeping my team in proper championship shape outside tennis season."

"Seiichi, that's not laziness. You can't drive most people at full tilt all year, they'd mutiny."

"But-"

"No. Not everyone on your team - or his - wants to be a professional player. Tennis is a hobby for some players, not an avocation. You have to accommodate other sports seasons, and schoolwork, and a personal life, or they'll resign entirely. If Mizuki wants to run his team like they're heading for nationals in the off-season, then I'm surprised he still has a team."

"-I suppose so." Yukimura was still pouting, as if unconvinced. "I guess we'll see."

* * *

"Tonight? You're the master of short notice, Yanagi."

Niou was sweeping the pavement outside the store, and Renji felt a momentary pang of guilt for distracting him from finishing and going back indoors; he was swaddled up in layers of coats and gloves, and Niou just had a sweater and an apron to shield him from the icy wind.

"Sorry. I was going to ask my sister to come, but she said yesterday that she'd rather go out with her boyfriend, and honestly I think she was only coming to humour me anyway."

Niou looked dubiously at the flyer. "I don't know any of these names, and this guy on the poster looks like someone's friendly grandpa. I'm not sure I'm going to be a fan, if I'm honest."

"That's fine. You can dislike it all you want after you've been. But you promised not to grumble too much, remember?"

The concert hall was small and densely-packed with rows of hard folding chairs, and Renji and Niou seemed to be the youngest people in the hall by approximately a decade. Niou looked around them, raised an amused eyebrow at Renji, and then wadded his coat up and sat on it as a makeshift cushion.

"I'm pretty sure you're going to owe me a meal after this," he said, cheerfully, leaning back in the chair. "Come on, bring on the grandpa music."

Renji smiled, rather more indulgently than he felt. "Just wait."

It was a great show; Renji relaxed into the music and after the first song he actually stopped worrying that Niou was going to hate it. Nobody could hate this music; it was witty and percussive and the band had the audience clapping along happily. By the end of the concert, after the last band had played their one big hit, Niou was on his feet with everyone else, applauding and grinning widely.

"So, not old man music after all?" Renji asked, lightly, as they shuffled slowly out of the hall, following the crowds towards the exit.

"Oh, still totally old man music," Niou laughed. "But cool old man music. I didn't expect to know any of their songs, and shit, they're actually kind of hilarious. Better than I was expecting, for sure."

"You should trust my judgement."

"Mm." Niou grinned, and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Still, I'm sort of annoyed. I had fun, that means you don't owe me, right?"

Renji glanced over at Niou, confused. "I - maybe?"

"Which means I can't just drag you out for - oops, shit, that's my phone, hang on." Niou pulled his phone out, and Renji had time to see '6 new messages, 2 missed calls' on the screen before Niou grimaced and shoved the phone back in his pocket.

"Someone trying to get hold of you?"

"It's my - er. A friend, sort of. Doesn't know how to take no for an answer, though."

"Oh." Renji wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. "Does your friend mind you coming out with me? I didn't mean to make you cancel other plans."

"I didn't." Niou scowled. "Don't worry about it, you're more interesting, believe me."

Renji thought for a moment. Niou had been about to offer to hang out again, Renji was pretty sure. He leant towards Niou, and ventured, "I'm sorry you had such a bad time. Tonight was dreadful, really."

Niou gave him a puzzled look for a second, and then his expression cleared into amused comprehension. "Mm, yeah, horrific. I'll never recover from the trauma, honestly. How will you ever repay me?"

"Why don't you think about it and let me know? No rush."

The crowd had by now slowly swept them outside, and Niou shivered suddenly, and pulled his coat tight. "Hm. You're on, data boy. Tomorrow, after work. Bring some oranges."

* * *

The next day was a Sunday, and Renji spent most of the day upstairs in the bookstore, assigned to the information desk there. Niou was downstairs, as usual, and so Renji spent the whole day wondering idly exactly Niou had in mind, and why he'd need fruit for it. At closing time, Renji gratefully doffed his apron and folded it neatly into his locker - and then had to wait another five minutes until Niou had finished his duties for the day.

They caught a small local train, with Niou smiling mysteriously, and Renji got the distinct impression that asking where they were going wouldn't actually get him a useful answer. Niou hauled him off at a stop Renji'd never paid attention to before, and they wound through a couple of backstreets and across a busy shopping street before Niou stopped outside a nondescript grey building.

"Ta-da," he said, and pulled out a key with a flourish.

Renji blinked, and looked up at the building. "You live here?"

"Home sweet home." Niou unlocked the front door, revealing a well-lit communal hallway. "C'mon."

Renji followed Niou inside and up one flight of stairs. The place seemed well-maintained and clean; Renji'd had vague fears that Niou might be living in some horrible hovel, given how awkward it must be to be renting an apartment at his age, but apparently not.

Niou stopped outside a door numbered 204, pushed it open and ushered Renji inside with a grin.

"Huh," said Renji, stepping out of his shoes, and peering into the small kitchen that led off to the left of the genkan. "If you'd told me we were coming here, I'd have brought a gift."

"You did," Niou said, and gestured to the bag of oranges that Renji had rather forgotten he was clutching. "I knew you'd be miffed at yourself if you didn't. Give them here, then go make yourself useful and turn on the kotatsu."

Renji obligingly handed over the bag, and then padded along the short hallway and into the more open space that served both as Niou's living room and his bedroom, to judge from the folded futon in the corner. There were shelves filled with books, and a few small cupboards around the place. Niou seemed rather averse to clutter; aside from a television and a calendar on one wall, Renji's main impression was of a room deliberately kept clear of too many things. The kotatsu had been set up in the centre of the room, and Renji managed to figure out the controls to turn it on just as Niou came in with a small tray.

"Tea," he said, cheerfully, setting down the tray. "Sorry it's so cold in here, but it'll warm up soon enough."

Renji tucked his legs under the kotatsu. "I'll be fine."

"So yeah, welcome to my place. It's not much but I like it." Niou folded himself down next to Renji. "Yagyuu always complains I haven't decorated enough, that it feels too spartan in here."

"It's nice. Peaceful."

Niou's smile in response was soft, almost shy. Renji suddenly realised that being invited back here was rather more of a privilege than he might have thought at first; this wasn't just Niou's home, this was his sanctuary after leaving a childhood home that had made him miserable. Renji ducked his head to hide the blush of delight at the thought that he'd been deemed acceptable, and busied himself fiddling with the teacups instead.

"So," he said, fumbling for a conversation topic, and his mind blanked entirely for a moment. "I-ah. Living alone is good, then?"

Niou shifted and stuck his feet under the kotatsu, bumping into Renji's as he did so. "Oops. Yeah. I mean, it's weird sometimes. My neighbour had to tell me after the first week that I'd done my recycling all wrong, and I'm still not really used to how thin the walls are. But I can come back here after work, and shut the world out, and it's… ah, I dunno."

"It's yours."

"Yeah." Niou stretched. "So, I was-"

Renji's phone rang, making him jump in surprise. "Ah-"

"Oh, get it, it's fine."

It turned out to be Yukimura, suffused with curiosity. "So I went to your house, and your mother said you were out, on a date."

"My mother is optimistic," said Renji, wondering if Niou could hear Yukimura's side of the conversation. "But I'm out, yes."

"When did you get a girlfriend? What did I miss?"

"I'm at Niou's, actually."

"Oh." Renji practically heard Yukimura deflate, and felt a surge of irritation that he tried to ignore. He'd wanted to imply that being with Niou meant it couldn't be a date, after all. It wasn't fair to be annoyed with Yukimura for having the expected reaction.

He smiled instead, so that his voice would sound light. "What did you need me for, Seiichi?"

"Ah, no, I was just passing, really."

"...you were passing my house, which is three kilometres away from your house."

"Alright, I was going to try and see your data about St Rudolph again, fine. I just don't like how confident Mizuki seems. He keep claiming he's going to win, no matter what. I'm worried he's got some trick to pull on us."

"I see." Renji didn't bother suppressing his sigh. "I'll bring my notes tomorrow. But right now, I'm going to go back to drinking tea, and you are going to go distract yourself and stop reading Mizuki's emails. Please."

"...fine. See you."

"Goodnight, Seiichi."

Renji hung up, set the phone carefully on the table, and then facepalmed with both hands.

"That bad, huh." Niou sounded sympathetic.

"He's awful." Renji lifted his head. "Whatever Mizuki said to him, and I'm fairly sure I only know half of it, it really struck a nerve. Yukimura's out for his blood."

"Ah." Niou made a thoughtful sound, and then pressed his thigh against Renji's for a second. It was probably meant to be a friendly, comforting gesture, but it sent a thrill up through Renji's pelvis and made him shiver unexpectedly. "I remember Mizuki pretty well, and isn't that just what he does? Winds people up, talks a big game, doesn't live up to it?"

"That's my experience."

"Huh." Niou poured out more tea. "Why's he needling Yukimura? Seems like a deathwish, if you ask me."

"Perhaps he just likes getting a reaction."

"Maybe." Niou pressed his thigh against Renji's again. "Sounds a bit playschool to me, you know? Like he's trying to get the pretty girl to notice him, and the only way he knows how to do that is to pull her plait and run away."

Renji, taking a sip of his tea, spluttered.

"Ah, I didn't mean like a crush." Niou grinned. "Just, you know, you want your superiors to acknowledge you, that's all."

"Hnn." Renji wiped the table with his sleeve, embarrassed. "I don't think I ever pulled anyone's plaits, it always seemed counterproductive."

"Ah, I did," Niou smirked. "Or the equivalent, at least. It was fun, even if it didn't get me very far."

"I'm not remotely surprised, somehow."

"Of course you're not, you've seen me prank enough people over the years." Niou hooked his hands together, and stretched them up and above his head. "Right, before we get warm enough to fall asleep, let's go and get food - there's a great ramen place down the road - and then I'd better let you go home before Yukimura calls me to complain I'm interfering with your training schedule, I suppose."

* * *

"They do have their new player, who is a little unpredictable but not much of a threat to your usual singles players," said Sadaharu, cautiously. "I don't believe there's anything else noteworthy; they're training hard, but I expect your predictive charts of progress are as accurate as mine on that front."

"I would imagine so, yes." Renji frowned over his notes again. "And Fuji-kun doesn't have any insights, I suppose?"

"No, I'm afraid he's mentioned nothing." There was a sound of keys tapping in the background. "His brother's been experimenting with somewhat looser strings this year, but-"

"-yes, I've taken that into account. Ah, well. I suppose it's good to confirm, at least."

There was a pause. "It's unusual for you to ask me for my data."

"We have that exhibition match soon, and I wanted to reassure the team that we were well-prepared."

Sadaharu made a noncommittal noise. "That's rather less confidence than I have come to expect of Rikkai."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"In any case, I shall be there to observe, and offer my support."

"I look forward to seeing you, then."

* * *

At work, on Saturday, Niou seemed distracted. Renji spoke to him only a few times during the day, and after work Niou darted off with a quick farewell.

It was frustrating, and Renji wondered if he'd done something wrong before dismissing the thought - they did seem to be developing a newer sort of friendship, with a different texture than their old casual camaraderie from school, but of course Niou had his own life and other friends, and Renji had no right to expect Niou to want to spend all his weekend time with Renji.

On Sunday, Niou had the morning off work, and then bounced into work cheerfully at the beginning of his shift. It was a busy afternoon, and Renji and Niou were both put to work as cashiers. Niou was full of energy, beaming at the customers, and Renji wondered what on earth had happened to put him in such a good mood.

"Tell you later," said Niou, when Renji realised he could in fact just ask. "You free after work, actually?"

"Er, sure," said Renji, only bending the truth slightly; his mother had asked him for some help with chores, but Renji was fairly certain he could persuade her to let him postpone those. "Shall we get a coffee somewhere?"

"Sure." Niou beamed at the next customer to come to his till. "Ah, hey, great choice, this is one of my favourites! Have you read the other series this guy wrote?"

After work, Niou - swaddled up in a thick padded jacket and his old Rikkai scarf - hooked his arm through Renji's to tow him impatiently through the streets. Renji tried not to blush at how intimate it felt to be arm-in-arm, and let Niou lead him to a generic coffee shop a few blocks away.

"So, you remember at the gig I told you there was an idiot who wouldn't say no?"

"I remember," said Renji, who'd wondered a few times whether the idiot was a girlfriend of some sort. It wouldn't entirely surprise him if Niou had a girl somewhere, someone who long-sufferingly put up with Niou not telling her where he was. Though perhaps that was more like something the old Niou would have done. The Niou he was coming to know these days, maybe not.

"Alright, the story there is that I made out with this guy at a house party, stupidly, and he got my number from a friend. And he's been pestering me like that for weeks, just constantly."

Oh. "I… oh."

Niou stirred a packet of sugar into his coffee, apparently unconcerned that he'd just admitted he'd kissed a guy. "Yeah, and so I finally caved yesterday and went on a date. And it was awful, he's just as much of a dick as I thought."

"...but you're in a good mood because of it?"

"Yeah, because he realised it was awful too, we have nothing in common and he thinks I'm boring. So he'll back off."

Renji stared at his coffee for a moment, thinking. "He thinks you're boring?"

"Well, I am, let's be honest. Me of like three years ago would think I was the dullest fucker around."

"You're one of the least boring people I know, Niou."

"Ha." Niou actually flushed faintly, and shook his head. "Maybe once. Not any more. I don't want to risk things, you see? I go out drinking or causing trouble, and the authorities decide I can't live alone, then guess what? I can't live alone. I figure, I wanna live a wild party life, I've got time later on when it's legal."

Renji frowned. Niou thought that made him boring. That being smart, that being wise, that having the grace and restraint to make good choices and think about his future was some kind of turn-off.

"I miss the freedom, mind you." Niou snorted, and stirred his coffee again. "Yagyuu leads a more exciting life than I do, honestly, and he's like the poster boy for the moral behaviour committee these days."

Renji impulsively took Niou's hand across the table. "I stand by my statement. If I thought you were boring, you think I'd spend so much time with you?"

"I-" Niou glanced down, at Renji's hand. "Alright. But normal people think I'm boring."

"I can't think of any higher compliment from you than not being normal," said Renji, and he let go. "So thank you."

Niou took a swig of his coffee, looking thoughtful, and not quite meeting Renji's eye.

"Nearly winter holidays," said Renji, after the silence had stretched out a little longer than was comfortable, just for something to say. "Do you think I'll be able to get extra shifts at work?"

Niou shrugged, and took another long swig from his cup. "Probably," he said, and then set his cup down in a very deliberate fashion. "Alright, data man. Would you like to go out with me, this week?"

"What for?"

"Just to go out. Together. Anywhere."

Renji reached out and put his hand over Niou's again. "Sure."

* * *

St Rudolph's team arrived a little early, and Sanada helped Renji steer Yukimura firmly away from talking to Mizuki for any longer than was absolutely necessary. It wasn't that hard; it was always a faint surprise, even now, to remember that Mizuki wasn't even captain, merely team coach.

Akazawa, as tanned as always even in the depths of winter, grinned his charming wide smile at Yukimura. "Hope you guys weren't too inconvenienced by all this."

"Actually, I think it may give us an unfair advantage," Sanada said, just enough of a touch of false concern in his voice to make Renji have to smother a smile. "We're on our territory now, and you guys have had to travel."

"Doesn't worry me, I like indoors courts more than outdoors ones anyway," said Akazawa, breezily. "We'll manage just fine."

Sanada, who'd managed to convince Yukimura it was incredibly unlikely that Mizuki would take the third singles slot, had a slightly tough battle against Fuji Yuuta; Fuji nearly managed to take the second set before Sanada got wise to the double-spin shot that Fuji was serving with. It was a good, crowd-pleasing match, exactly the kind of thing that delighted scouts and spectators alike.

Doubles 2 was however, a rout. Marui and Yagyuu took down Kisarazu and Yanagisawa with practised precision, losing a grand total of two games across the two sets. Renji actually winced, during the third set, when St Rudolph were five games down; this margin of victory looked almost cruel.

The second singles matchup was, to Renji's faint horror, Yukimura versus Mizuki.

And it was, after all that, rather an anticlimax. Yukimura was clearly on excellent form, and - while Mizuki was, in fact, a perfectly good tennis player - it was a brutal game. Mizuki didn't manage to take more than than a handful of points, not one single game, and clearly spent nearly all of the second set attempting to fight off the eerie paralysis that Yukimura's precision inflicted on opponents.

Yukimura strode up to the net, at the end of the second set, and rather haughtily stuck out his hand towards Mizuki, who grasped it weakly for a moment in what barely qualified as a handshake. And then Mizuki appeared to shake off his weakness, and he hauled Yukimura forward so he was forced to lean across the net, and then he whispered something into Yukimura's ear that made Yukimura's eyes widen in surprise. Mizuki smirked, released Yukimura's hand, and then bowed in what looked like a distinctly smug fashion.

"Well," said Sanada, as fascinated as Renji was. "What was all that about?"

"I wish I knew."

They lined up to shake hands across the net, and Renji noted with some amusement that Yukimura's cheeks were rather pink as he shook Mizuki's hand.

"I rather think Mizuki has been pulling Yukimura's plait," he said to Sanada, afterwards, as the teams mingled awkwardly outside to exchange polite farewells. "It seems to have worked."

Sanada gave Renji a confused look. "Do I want to try and decipher that?"

"I suspect not." Renji glanced over to the doorway, where Yukimura and Mizuki were in fact talking quietly. Yukimura was wearing an expression that Renji wasn't sure he'd ever seen before, a mixture of confusion and flattered-ness and amusement. "But I suspect we'll be seeing more of Mizuki around here in future."

"Oh." Sanada glanced over towards the door, and then he snorted. "Oh god. I'm going to pretend I have no idea what you mean, and you're going to let me continue that as long as I can."

"That bad?"

"Those two? It's going to be hilarious, but only from a distance. Take my advice, and pretend you don't know either."

Renji considered that, watching as Mizuki said something that made Yukimura smile like an embarrassed schoolgirl, all flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes. "...and I'm dating Niou, by the way."

Sanada nodded, still idly watching Mizuki and Yukimura. "I know."

"What?"

"Please. We all saw it coming from weeks ago." Sanada glanced at Renji, and grinned. "If not longer. You're not subtle when you're smitten."

Renji covered his face with his hand, not sure whether to smile or frown or just to thump Sanada on the arm in protest.

"But you two… I dunno. I hope it works for you."

Yukimura was now laughing at Mizuki, who bowed extravagantly over Yukimura's hand and pretended to kiss the back of it. Renji sighed, and heard Sanada echo the noise, and then they both chuckled.

"Right then. Let's get out of here, before Yukimura catches us spying on him, hm?"

* * *

"Yukimura and Mizuki? It... really?" Niou was shaking with suppressed laughter.

"Apparently so. I don't think it's quite… well. I don't know that they're quite dating yet, but I think that's where it's going. They're flirting a lot, at least."

"Huh. Do I get to say I called it?" Niou squeezed Renji's hand gently under the table. "I mean, I didn't think Yukimura swung any way but tennis-wards, or I'd have actually called it."

"Oh, I think you can definitely claim this one."

Niou grinned at him, and squeezed Renji's hand again. This was their first real date. The food at the restaurant had been a bit bland, and they'd gotten stuck in a smoking section of the restaurant that meant the smell clung to everything, and they'd gotten soaking wet as they ran between the restaurant and a nearby cafe.

But now Niou was holding his hand, and Niou was smiling at him, and Niou seemed to like him, and really, everything else faded into inconsequentiality. They talked, easily, and somehow hours passed without really registering and suddenly it was late.

"So," said Niou, peering out into the darkness, his fingers now resting lightly on Renji's wrist. "It's raining. I have work tomorrow, and you have school."

"I suppose… yes. We should probably go home."

"Mm." Niou's eyes were dark, and full of mischief. "So. I'm not usually the kind of take a guy home on a first date, but I'd really like to kiss you and I'm not going to do that outside in the rain in the freezing cold when I could maybe do it somewhere a lot more comfortable."

Renji could feel himself growing pink at the idea. "I'd… have to stay overnight, at this time."

"I know." Niou's fingers were drawing gentle patterns on the back of Renji's hand. "You have your school uniform with you, though. And you can have the futon, I'm used to falling asleep under the kotatsu, honestly."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know." Niou's fingers drifted to a halt. "I won't mind if you say no."

By the time they made it into Niou's apartment, Renji was tense and twitchy with anticipation. He fumbled off his shoes, and set down his bag, and then Niou pushed him firmly up against the corridor wall and kissed him until every coherent thought in his head had been washed away and replaced with desire.

And then Niou pulled back, and chuckled lightly. "Ah, god, sorry, I just-"

"Me too," said Renji, and he heaved in a deep breath. "More?"

Niou smirked at him, and kissed him again, and more was only the beginning.

* * *

Author's note: This may literally be the most self-indulgent fic I've ever written, but I think my giftswap recipient has similar enough taste to me to enjoy Niou in a bookstore apron and Yukimura in an Elsa costume, at least.

And I know. I didn't tag this as Yukimura/Mizuki. Consider it a delightful surprise. ;)

...and hey, Mizuki's *canonically* very persuasive. I figure he can pull out some serious smooth talking once in a while, when he has enough motivation to do so.


End file.
